Social Inequality

In this article, I’m going to talk about how literature and films can make people more aware of social inequality. Social inequalities are situations where people in a society, do not have equal social status and can be caused by different skin color, religion, sex etc.

To illustrate this phenomenon, I’m going to use the movie “The blind side” and the book “The book thief” which are both based true stories/events. “The blind side” is an American drama-film made by John Lee Hancock, based by the book “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” by Michael Lewis. ‘The storyline features Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. The film follows Oher from his impoverished upbringing, through his years at Wingate Christian School (a fictional representation of Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, Tennessee), his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, to his position as one of the most highly coveted prospects in college football, then finally becoming a first round pick in the NFL by the Baltimore Ravens.’ It’s a strong story about a homeless boy, Michael Oher, with no bright future or what so ever, becomes one the greatest American football player of all time. Besides from presenting this amazing story, the movie also presents the social inequality between the American slum and lots of Afro-American citizens’ life compared to wealthier citizens (middle- and upper class) in America as it is today.

“The book thief” however, is a story about the young girl Liesel Meminger’s life through the WW II, living with her rather poor foster parents in Himmel Street, Munich. During the hard years, Liesel experience lots of exciting but also frightening things, though the most noteworthy part of her life must be during the time her foster parents hides the Jew Max Vandeberg in their basement. Though the story and its characters isn’t based on a true story, it is however based on the German citizens life during the WW II and the author describes the conditions of living during the war in a fantastic way. The story also describes the social inequality between how our way of living during the WW II and nowadays lifes, while it also presented the inequality between the poor and the rich germans – and of course, the Jews.

These are two great examples of how social inquality can be presented through movies and litterature, and I think we will see more great examples like these on that in the future.

 

-Masst

The Book Thief

 

• Write an entry on your blog. Call it my reading of…..(name of book)
• Make a table and in the left hand column write 4 different paragraphs from the book from each of the following topics: Theme, setting, plot and character development.
• In the right hand column write why you chose that particular paragraph and its significance in the book.
• End the blog post by writing a small summary of your impression of the book!(I am writing it at the start, since making columns with HTML is a hazzle.)Make it out as a review and post it on Amazon! Would you recommend this book to others? Link to the review on your blog.

Theme ‘I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.’	In my opinion, ’The Book Thief’ is about three things. Firstly, the power and importance of words, death, and the challenges in life. The paragraph quoted is from the book opening, and as you may or may not understand, Death is the narrator, and plays therefor a great part in the book.
Setting ‘One light globe dangled from the ceiling and the room was dank and cold. Jagged walls jutted out and poked people in the back as they stood and spoke. The muffled sound of sirens leaked from somewhere. They could hear a distorted version of them that somehow found a way inside. Although creating considerable apprehension about the quality of the shelter, at least they could hear the three sirens that would signal the end of the raid, and safety.	This paragraph describes the setting during most of the time in the book and the world war II, and if there’s one word to describe the setting, it’d be anxiety.
Plot ‘A few minutes later, Liesel’s mother started leaving with the priest. She was thanking him for his performance of the ceremony.                 The girl however, stayed.                 Her knees entered the ground. Her moment had arrived.                 Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t-                 Within seconds, snow was carved into her skin.                 Frozen blood was cracked across her hands. Somewhere in all the snow, she could see her broken heart, in two pieces. Each half was glowing, and beating all that white. She only realized her mother had come back for her when she felt the boniness on her shoulder. She was being dragged away. A warm scream filled her throat. A SMALL IMAGE, PERHAPS TWENTY METRES AWAY When the dragging was done, the mother And the girl stood and breathed. There was something black And rectangular lodged in the snow. Only the girl saw it. She bent down and picked it up and held it firmly with her finger. The book had silver writing on it.’	This paragraph is of a certain importance, because it symbolizes the end of Liesel’s life with her real family, and the beginning of her new life with the Hubermann’s at Himmel Street. Liesel also steals her first book in this specific paragraph, which also marks her beginning as the book thief.
Character Development Firmly, he held her fingers. ‘Remember the Führer’s birthday – when we walked home from the fire that night? Remember what you promised me? The girl occurred. To the wall she said, ‘That I would keep a secret.‘ ‘That’s right.’ Between the hand-holding shadows, the painted words were scattered about, perched on their shoulders, resting on their heads and hanging from their arms. ‘Liesel, if you tell anyone about the man up there, we will be in big trouble.’ He walked the fine line of scaring her into oblivion and soothing her enough to keep her calm. He fed her the sentences and watched with his metallic eyes. Despereation and placidity. ‘At the very least, Mama and I will be taken away.’ Hans was clearly worried that he was on the verge of frightening her too much, but he calculated the risk, preferring to err on the side of too much fear rather than not enough. The girl’s compliance had to be an absolute, immutable fact.	In this paragraph, something dramatic has happened, and to be more specific – a Jew has been hidden at the Hubermanns. As a cause of hiding a Jew during WW II in Germany was some of the most dangerous things you could do, which lead the Hubermanns to change their way of living, and to name a few examples of the Hubermanns charcter development: -Rosa became more calm and friendly to Liesel. -Hans became more anxious. -Liesel started to hate Hitler.

What I’ve done today

We didn’t have to do much this Tuesday, but I‘ve wrote some new material for our class’ in-depth project, where wrote about the benefits of using new technology for school work, and I’ve also started to read ‘the book thief’.

This was me this morning, it’s bloody cold!

-Masst

 

I will read a book!

I’ve chosen to read ‘The book thief’ written by Mark Zusak, which was ‘The New York Times’ best selling book when it first came out. I’m really excited!

The Beat

The popular social photo service Instagram has had much to contend with at the moment, and now it seems there’s more to come.

Recently, a new service called The Beat, made ​​from Rutgers Social Media Information Labs, connects geotagged photos uploaded to Instagram with Google Maps Street View feature. The result is a frightening accurate location based service, which tells you exactly where a picture is taken, allowing you to rotate around the camera, so you can scout around the area.

The service is totally legal, and you can see where pictures have been taken just seconds after it have been uploaded, and should probably be a reminder on what you will publish in the future.

Apple gadgets

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to share some YouTube videos featuring new cool Iphone and Ipad gadgets which you probably never knew exist! Be sure to check them out:

Nano nails

Canopy sensus

Ollo clip

Every year, Norway sends a Christmas tree to England to show their friendship and gratitude for Britain’s assistance during World War II. The tree, which is usually 20 to 25 m in height and about 60 years old, is then shipped free-of-charge across the North Sea to Immingham by DFDS Tor Line. A special crew is contracted to haul it from the docks to Trafalgar Square and place it on a specific space which is allocated every year to the tree, and it takes hours to put it up.

During the war in 1940, King Haakon VII escaped to Britain and a Norwegian exile government was set up in London. Among the Norwegian king and other Norwegians, London came to represent the spirit of freedom during the tough years during the war. It was actually three trees which were brought in 1943 (which was the start of the tradition), as a token from the Norwegian underground fighters to show their gratefulness (because they were supplied by the Britains).  The trees were meant for the Norwegian king, the Norwegian embassy and one for display at Trafalgar Square.

The tree has become a symbol of the close and warm relationship between the people of Britain and Norway. Norwegians are also happy and proud of this token, and the famous Christmas tree seems to have become a big part of Christmas for Londoners.

The ceremony of switching on the lights takes place in the early evening on the first Thursday in December. After the switching, there is always a band playing and a choir singing Christmas carols as the Lord Mayor of Westminster arrives with his party. The floodlighting of the nearby National Gallery is specially dimmed for the occasion. At the flick of a switch the Christmas tree comes alive, turning into a twinkling mass of lights. In line with Norwegian tradition the lights are all white; electrical bulbs being the twenty first-century equivalent of candlelight.

-Masst

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/23/a3819323.shtml

Edublog Awards 2012!

This November I would like to nominate the following student blog in the “best student blog” category, and my vote goes to Marie!

In the category of the “best teacher blog”, my vote goes to Ann!

 

-Masst

Does blogging work?

My teacher gave me these two Q’s today, and here are my A’s :

• Do you think there is more pressure on how you perform/write when you use blogs instead of writing a paper for the teacher only?

-I think it’s bit more pressure writing English on blogs than paper. I don’t know exactly why, but I think it’s because I just want to better in English, and blogging is more fun!

• Do you think the use of blogs reduces the difference between your work at school and your everyday life?

-For me, my blog is my English work. But it’s a really fun way to work with English, and I truly enjoy it!

-Masst

Informal & Formal texts

When writing English texts, there are mainly two styles of writing- informal or formal. The most common differences between informal and formal text are often these:

Elementary aids used in informal texts:

• Colloquial words/expressions (kids, guy, awesome, a lot, etc.)
• Contractions (can’t, won’t, etc.).
• First, second, or third person.
• Clichés (by absence, etc.)
• Address readers using second person pronouns (you, your, etc.)
• Imperative voice (ex. Remember)
• Active voice (ex. We have noticed that…)
• Short and simple sentences.

Elementary aids used in formal texts:

• Avoids contractions (write out full words – cannot, will not, etc.).
• Avoids using colloquial words/expressions (children, man/boy, wonderful, many, etc.)
• Third person (except in business letters were first person may be used).
• Avoids clichés (was absent, etc.)
• Avoids addressing readers using second person pronouns (use one, one’s, the reader, the reader’s, etc.)
• Avoids imperative voice (Please refer to…)
• Passive voice (ex.. It has been noticed that….)
• Longer and more complex sentences.
• State your points confidently.

 

You should probably know the difference between an informal and formal text, but I’ll show you an example as well, where I will talk about 

Informal text:

While reading todays news, I found an interesting text about the investigation on the ISAF and U.S guy, General John Allen. The general is now in the FBI’s spotlight after discovering lots of mails between him and Jill Kelley. And if you didn’t know, Jill Kelley was the woman leaked the threatening emails from Paola Broadwell- but let’s not talk about that. It isn’t totally clear how Allen and Kelley communicated, but FBI are investigating 30 000 emails and documents, 30 000! I’m not sure If this will play an important role in the CIA-case, but I do believe this will lead to some more interesting news. What do you think?

Formal Text:

Pentagon revealed this day that ISAF Commander and U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for inappropriate communication with the woman who should have received threatening e-mails from Paula Broadwell, as CIA chief Petraeus had a relationship.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reported the news to the journalists who were in his flight from Honolulu to Perth in Australia, and said the FBI notified the incident on Sunday.

The woman Allen in all probability has communicated with, Jill Kelley, is also the woman who notified the FBI about what she perceived as threatening e-mails from Broadwell, and thus led to the investigation that revealed the relationship between Petraeus and Broadwell.

It is not clear what or how this communication between Kelley and Allen have been, but the American federals are investigating between 20 000 and 30 000 pages of e-mails and other documents, which likely has been sent between Allen and Kelley between 2010 and 2012, according to one of Panetta employees.

The fact that Allen is not suspended yet, may indicate that the general has not violated U.S. law, but rather violated military policy.

 

This is my two examples of an informal and formal text, where I talked about the investigation on John Allen, and were I used aids like : 

• Colloquial words/expressions (guy, a lot, etc.)
• Contractions (isn’t let’s etc.).
• First person.
• Address readers using second person pronouns (you, your, etc.)
• Imperative voice (ex. Remember, If you didn’t know)

And in the Formal text, I used aids like:

• Avoids contractions (write out full words – cannot, will not, etc.).
• Avoids using colloquial words/expressions (man/boy, many etc.)
• Third person.
• Avoids addressing readers using second person pronouns (use one, one’s, the reader, the reader’s, etc.)
• Avoids imperative voice.
• Passive voice.
• Longer and more complex sentences.

I hope you understood and enjoyed this article.

-Masst